Archive for category: News

Martin guitar restoration 1943 000-28

This is a story about a pre war martin guitar repair.

The peg head on this old Martin guitar had broken off once upon a time and been lost. In desperation the owner decided to try his hand at fabricating a peg head of some kind to get the old guitar playing once again. Well they were able to fabricate a make shift peg head, and it got them by for a while but eventually they decided to get this guitar repaired.

This old martin had a refinish job done with a very thick finish, probably a poly of some sort. The finish had cracked in several places. Dark lines were left on the top of the guitar as a result of the cracks, so this finish was removed carefully and the neck was carefully removed and replaced with one we fabricated to match the original neck. Read more →

The best acoustic guitar pickup you will ever hear.

Imagine, you have scrimped & saved and tightened your belt for that one guitar. You know the one we are talking about. It strikes something deep inside your soul when you strum or finger pick it’s strings, or when you smell the blended aromas of rosewood & spruce in it’s construction, it just flips a switch in the pleasure center of your brain. Something happens, and it is so hard to explain, but it call’s out for your hands to become one with it’s fret board & makes your heart jump with excitement every time you play it. You know this is the right guitar for you.

So, now that we have covered some basic human emotion, and physical responses that take place when we connect with the right guitar, mandolin, banjo or any stringed instrument for that mater.

Lets explore what we want in an acoustic guitar pickup. Lets ask this question. If you love the sound of your acoustic guitar, which is a big reason why you bought it in the first place, and you know your friend that you brought with you also said it sounded amazing, wouldn’t it make sense to have an acoustic guitar pickup installed that is going to capture as much of that pure acoustic sound as possible?

Tell you what! The answer to that question 99.99% of the time is, yes absolutely!

We were told once upon a time that to have an acoustic guitar pickup like this wasn’t possible. Think about how many times great men in this world were faced with those words “it’s not possible” from other’s and yet, those men achieved what others said was not possible!

With that said, I would be doing you an injustice by not sharing the following with you!

Out of all the acoustic guitar pickups I personally have had experience with in my 28 years of playing and working on guitars, the K&K pure mini acoustic guitar pickup is by far the most transparent pickup I have ever heard. It doesn’t add extra color to your guitar or instrument, which most sound guys will love! They will tell you that you can’t add what has already been taken away, frequency wise. The K&K pickup truly captures your instrument for what it is! They are absolutely magical if they are installed by a qualified guitar repair tech or luthier.

1970’s Les Paul Restoration

This is about a 1970’s Les Paul restoration we did that made heads turn. You know those stories you always hear about people finding vintage guitars in someone’s yard sale or buried in someone’s garage? you know like a Fender Strat, Tele or an old Gibson Guitar. Well here is a story about one of those, yes one of those! being a guitar repair man i cant tell you how many times over the years I have had these finds come across my bench.Whether they are real old vintage or recent vintage, it doesn’t matter especially when you only pay $20 for one of them! Chris the guitar and key player of the band The Forty Nineteens knows just how cool it is to find and old 1970’s Gibson Les Paul at some garage sale and for a steal at that! This guitar came to me in need of some love and attention. The Les Paul had a low neck angle it was obvious that someone in the past had attempted to do some finish work on this baby and left it in disarray.Read more →